Casablanca: A Film for the Ages

Just like the hit song of the film, 1942's Casablanca grows more legendary as time goes by, and not without good cause. For like all legends, it remains exceptional and inimitable. And not even the incredible talent of its international cast, the gauntlet of emotions created by its Nazi-oppressed setting, the presence of film greats Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, or the hit song and momentous musical score by famed composer Max Steiner can quite explain its compelling attraction and increasing popularity with film audiences everywhere over the years.

Perhaps because Casablanca"is a basic story about good versus evil under the most difficult of times, as well as the simple tale exploring then resolving the inner struggles of common people who struggle not only against immense evil but against their own inner demons and conflicted emotions - "Casablanca" is a film for the ages, and one reputedly seen by more film goers than any other motion picture before or after.

Bogart's role as the American expatriate Rick - the gruffly, silent, chip-on-his-shoulder owner of a seedy cafe - no doubt has a lot to do with the picture's undiminishing watchability. But his portrayal of the reluctant hero jilted by love and left standing stupefied at a train depot in pouring rain in Paris, France before his subsequent expatriation to Casablanca, has moreover become the subject of film scholars and romantic writers the world over! The role propelled Bogart to instant stardom, but no less aided the careers of co-stars Bergman, Claude Rains and French actor Paul Henreid.

Henreid, whose screen persona as an escaped concentration camp POW and tortured husband to Bergman's devoted but guilt-ridden screen siren, also weighs heavily in the story's triangular plot and came on the heels of his famous romantic lead in "Now Voyager," a film that gave new meaning to smoking cigarettes and falling in love with troubled but sympathetic leading men.

Perhaps no line of dialogue has been misquoted as often from a film as "Play It Again, Sam" supposedly but never spoken by Bogart to his piano-playing sidekick (Dooley Wilson) who performs the "As Time Goes By" standard throughout the movie. Other notable and oft-repeated quotes are "Round up the usual suspects" as well as the recently made into a television commercial salutation: "I think this is the beginning of a long friendship!" Of course, such lines no doubt, are also the stuff of legends. And their becoming common usage in popular culture has probably done more for the film's remarkable success than anything else.

Still, in a strange and unforeseen circumstance, "Casablanca" is as much a war movie as it is a romantic melodrama. And one that came at a crucial time: when Allied forces were losing both real estate and decisive battles to advancing Axis armies in Africa, the Pacific and elsewhere. Americans especially needed a dose of hope and positive outlook to aid them in the war effort, and before they could even begin to consider that victory was anywhere in sight.

When Bogart's Rick vanquishes the city's Nazi overloads while enlisting the dapper aid of Claude Rains' suave but opportunistic chief of police, and then finally secures star-crossed lovers Bergman and Henreid's freedom flight to America, "Casablanca" became and remains an immensely patriotic film. And one that is neither dated nor cynical, even in its slowest moments or by today's expensive, special-effects-laden film entrees.

Winner of best picture and two other Oscars, "Casablanca" is one of those rare feasts of movie watching that apparently is still impossible to view just once.